I wanted to travel to Africa because my dad is South African and had lived there for most of his life. He talks about the things he'd experienced which made me want to go! The South African experience, for me, looked perfect! Doing voluntary work, but also travelling combined with a set route made me at ease because I like to have a plan.

The world over, we are seeing ever more cases of extreme weather, from the recent floods in the UK to wild fires in Australia. With each incident comes the familiar assurances that - this time - the necessary action will be taken to make sure there is no repeat. The reality is we have no choice, as every country faces the fact that climate change - and its impact on the weather - is no longer a distant prediction, but a daily reality. And for the poorest people on the planet, the need to change is not just a matter of saving money, but saving lives.

When Antony Jenkins took the helm at Barclays he promised to clean up a bank that had been badly scarred by a seemingly relentless stream of scandals. To re-enforce the point he sent an email to his 140,000 staff saying that he wanted to bring new ethical standards to Barclays. Those who didn't want to sign up to them were told they should leave.

Many hope so, but for now, it seems the struggle against centuries of the 'Fair and Lovely' culture rages on, while skin-bleaching itself remains the norm amongst many in Asian and African communities.

Watching Uganda's president chuckle as he signed into law a bill that meant life improvement for homosexuality and not reporting gay family members a criminal offence was chilling. Many western observers shared an intuition that the West should surely respond in swift and principled manner to this 'odious' bill...

Despite not being able to shower for 7 days, missing my gorgeous bed and having to wear the same clothes for several days in a row. Taking on Kilimanjaro was without a doubt, one of the most incredible expeditions I have ever done in my life.

If you're expecting me to paint a picture of the struggles of those from developing countries to reinforce the first thought of an Aid commercial showing a young child that came to mind when you read the words 'Third World', then I am sorry to disappoint you.

Through a collection of photographs and interviews, Crossings: The journey to peace challenges predominant narratives about eastern DRC, which focus on 'conflict trade' and 'rape' above broader lived experiences.

In a group of 100 children, singing, playing and some crying, two girls stand out. Their names are Madiha, 9, and Lina, 4. It is not their unusual silence that catches my attention, but the way they frequently hug each other, often involuntarily...

n a Western society, words are everywhere. Adverts on the tube, bus on billboards.
There are words on our mobile phones, we can get apps which tell us the latest news, which tells us what is trending and which celebrity is pregnant, has been arrested or has overdosed...

It is bad enough that the international community averts its eyes from the state-sponsored horror that persists in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan... We compound Darfur's suffering by failing to use our leverage in the region to ensure Bashir faces justice at the ICC.

Just think, if the money lost to tax evasion was available for governments to allocate according to current spending patterns, the amount going towards health services could save an estimated 1.9 million children a year. That's approximately 21 fewer children dying in the time it took you to read this article.

Ethnic conflict as a term has become widely used as phrase to explain the majority (if not all) of the non-Western conflicts. Ethnicity itself has been used by political leaders to fuel conflict and consolidate political power and control over resources...

12 February marks The International Day Against The Use Of Child Soldiers, otherwise known as Red Hand Day. It's an annual commemoration of children around the world caught in conflict but should also act as a reminder that this is a problem that is far from over.

Think of disease in Africa and you maybe think of malaria. But this is not the whole picture. In Africa and across developing countries, people are living longer and their lifestyles are changing. With this shift, a different threat is emerging...

Later this week I am travelling to East Africa and I will spend a month meeting with anti-FGM campaigners, representatives from governments and non-governmental organisations working on development programmes and/or violence against women initiatives...

The scale of the violence, which has intensified since November, has escalated rapidly. More than 1,000 people have died in the last month alone. A widespread culture of impunity has rendered women particularly vulnerable and sexual violence is being used to terrorise groups within the country. A million people have fled or been displaced from their homes, compounding the already desperate humanitarian crisis. Amidst the horror, there is also confusion - from those struggling to make sense of a conflict in a country where Christian and Muslim communities have coexisted peacefully in the past and where, now, intense religious division is leading to horrific violence.

I did not know Komla Dumor personally. But I remember hearing his baritone voice for the first time on the BBC World Service, full of self-confidence, energy, intelligence, passion and personality that suggested a rising career path.

Speaking as a midwife and one of the 1.1 billion people living in Africa, to my mind, there is one recurring topic that perfectly fits this year's theme: "Reshaping of the World"- and that is the future of our people.